Jeff Mitchell: Castañeda is denied committee assignments

Jan. 9, 2013

Representatives from Dorothy's Place and the Food Bank for Monterey County came to The Salinas Californian on Wednesday to pick up essential food items donated during the Californian's December 2012 Holiday Sprint Food Drive. From left, they are Roberto Rodriguez, John Morton, organizers Jeff Mitchell and Catherine Boswell from The Californian, John Jordan, Stella Perez, Ralph Heflin, and Cathie Montero from the Food Bank. / Jay Dunn/The Salinas Californian

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Under the Dome

Wednesday marked Day 22 in the ongoing saga of Jose Castañeda who continues to serve — in apparent violation of state law — on both the Alisal Union School District Board of Trustees and the Salinas City Council.

The political fallout from the controversy was made sharply apparent this week when Mayor Joe Gunter refused to name Castañeda, who represents District 1 on the city’s east side, to any of 42 council subcommittees or regional governmental agency boards — panels that govern such things as regional transportation, planning and future development.

That’s 42 slots. Yep, count ’em: 42.

In the language of politics, this would be considered a shutout. In any language, for that matter. The freshman council member might as well be in Siberia.

Castañeda refused to comment on the whole saga when I approached him Tuesday night at the council meeting as he left the dais to go into closed session.

Gunter, starting to get his mayoral and political sea legs, did not return a call seeking comment on why he iced out Castañeda.

Castañeda, interestingly, requested — and received — a separate council vote on the appointments, but did not bring up the issue of why he was off the list. Meanwhile, Castañeda was expected take his seat Wednesday night at a meeting of the Alisal Union School District board of trustees. However, the meeting was cancelled an hour after it was scheduled to start when two board members called in sick and Castañeda called in, saying he was experiencing a family emergency, according to board President Adella Lujan.

It’s starting to become clear that this situation may not end anytime soon.

Up with Rotary's version of the dawn patrol

I was honored this week to address the Steinbeck Rotary Club.

First, let me say this is a very hardy group — they’re all up with the chilly dawn patrol at 0730 on Wednesdays at the National Steinbeck Center. (That’s 7:30 a.m. for the rest of us.)

I yammered on a bit about the news media’s digital revolution and the need to continue to support watchdog reporting in all forms and then answered several insightful questions. This was a room full of very savvy news consumers.

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Thanks for having me out, folks. It was fun.

Canned food drive a success

Congratulations and thanks to our fine and generous readers!

You’re the best.

Our Holiday Sprint Canned Food Drive saw us collect just under 1,100 pounds of canned or non-perishable food. Considering that we threw the campaign together on the fly, we couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

The food, which will go to the Food Bank for Monterey County and Dorothy’s Place, was picked up and carted out of our lobby Wednesday.

Let me stop to thank General Manager Paula Goudreau, her executive assistant Catherine Boswell and Advertising Director Craig Hymovitz for all their support on this project. Next time we hope to start much earlier — perhaps Nov. 1 — so we can have even more time to collect the food that can make a real dent in Salinas Valley hunger. Thank you all again.

Monning and Alejo get committee assignments

The elected heads of the California Assembly and Senate passed out committee assignments to local statehouse lawmakers this week. These assignments often reflect a given elected’s status within a particular legislative body, so they’re always good to keep an eye on.

State Sen. Bill Monning (D-Carmel) was appointed to the Senate Budget Committee and was named chair of Budget Subcommittee No. 3. He was also assigned to the Health and Human Services Committee as well as the Health, Judiciary, Education, Natural Resources and Water committees.

Assemblyman Luis Alejo, (D-Watsonville), has been reappointed chairman of the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee. Alejo will also serve on the Environmental Safety and Toxic Materials Committee, the Labor Committee, the Judiciary Committee and the Local Government Committee.

• Jeff Mitchell covers Salinas City Hall and local politics. Send tips or story ideas by email to: jemitchell@theCalifornian.com; or by phone: 831-754-4281. He can be heard live on the air Fridays at 8:10 a.m. on KION 1460-AM and KION 101.1-FM. You also can follow Under the Dome on Twitter at twitter.com/CalUnderTheDome.